Door-check.



No. 672.237. Patented Apr. I6, l90l. F. H. OGDEN.

DOOR CHECK.

(Application filed Apr. 20, 1900.

(N0 Model.)

ATTORNEYS THE mums PETERS 120.. worouwc. WASHINGTON. o. c.

A FFCt FREDERICK H. OGDEN, OF NEWARK, NEWJERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HENRY ILL, OF SAME PLACE.

DOOR-=CHECK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 672,237, dated April 16, 1901.

Application filed April 20, 1900.

T (tZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK I-I. OGDEN,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Door-Checks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,

and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which IO it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in door-checks, and resides particularly in an antomatically-adjusted regulating-valve by which the speed of the door in closingis made substantially the same whether the door be exposed to wind-pressure or not and in the novel construction of the check.

The objects of my invention are to avoid the necessity of regulating the action of doorchecks according to varying conditions of weather and to accomplish this in as simple a manner as possible and to make the check compact. These objects are attained in the invention herein described and illustrated in the drawings, which form a part of this specification, in which the same reference-letters indicate the same or corresponding parts, and in which Figure 1 is a central vertical section of a door-check embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is likewise a central vertical section of adoorcheck, but is taken on a plane at right angles to that of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a detail view of the under side of the piston, showing the automatically-adj usted regulating-valve.

In the drawings, ais the casing of the check, and Z2 is a central shaft or spindle to which is attached a lever 0, which is one of the two levers by which the spindles of door-checks 40 are customarily connected to the doors or doorframes.

The casing a is divided into an upper or spring chamber d, within which is a spring 6, and a lower chamber f, in the upper portion of which are gears and a crank-shaft for operating a' piston. The lower portion 9 of this chamber fconstitutes the working cylinder proper and contains the piston h.

Motion is communicated from the crankshaft 11 and crank-pin j to the piston h by a connecting-rod 7c. The crank-shafti is revo- Serial No. 13,682. (No model.)

lubly mounted in lugs Z, depending from a plate m, separating the chambers d andf. Motion is communicated from the spindle Z) to the crank-shaftt' by means of gears rt and 0. Gear at on spindle b is smaller than gear 0 on shaft 7;, the gear ratio being such that the crank-pinj, starting from its lower dead-center when the door is opened, never reaches its upper deadcenter, even though the door be swung through as much as one hundred and eighty degrees. From whatever position the door may start to close, therefore, the piston 71 immediately begins to exercise a restraining action, so as to prevent too rapid closing of the door, and since this restraining action begins immediately no sudden strains are imposed on the mechanism of the check. In the piston is a check-valve p, which opens when the piston moves upward, permitting the passage of the liquid from above the piston to below the same. In the piston'there is also a leakage-passage q, through which the liquid may return to the upper side of the piston as said piston moves downward. To restrict the flow of liquid through this passage q, an automatic regulating-valve (lettered r in, Figs. 1 and 3) is provided. In its simplest form this valve consists of a simple strip of spring metal secured at one end to the piston and. covering the leakage-opening q, that portion of the spring which covers said opening being slightly curved, as shown in Fig. When the piston starts to move downward, the fluid-pressure on this bent portion of the spring r causes the spring to straighten out more or less, according to the degree of pressure on it. In so straightening out the spring approaches the orifice of the passage q, and the greater the pressure of the fluid upon the spring the more said spring straightens out, and therefore the more it restricts the passage g. It will thus be seen that the spring 1", by means of its resiliency, is able to compensate automatically for variations in wind-pressure tending to hasten the closing of the door, for if there be little wind-pressure tending to close the door the spring r will be subjected to but little pressure and the passage q will be restricted but little, whereas if there be much wind-pressure tending to close the door the spring 1' will restrict the opening (1 more completely and therefore the resisting power of the check will be much greater In order to prevent the spring '2" from completely closing the passage q and so from stopping all motion of the piston h, said piston is provided on its under side with a small groove 8, intersecting the passage g. This groove permits a slight escape of fluid, even though the spring 1" be flattened out straight by the pressure upon it.

It is obvious that the reliefpassage instead of being located in the piston might be located in the wall of the cylinder itself, forming a by-pass passage, and that the valve 0,

instead of being secured to the piston might I be secured to the cylinder, with its free end over an orifice of such by-pass passage. The operation of such a check would be the same as the check shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 shows a slightlydiiferent form of regulating-valve. In this case the leakageopening (there lettered g) has a conical portion within which may be seated a valve-plug r", secured to the flat spring 1'. In the conical portion of this passage q is a groove 5, corresponding to the groove 8 of the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and the function of which is to prevent the valve from completely closing the passage.

The spring 6 is secured at one end to the casing a and at the other end to a bushing t, surrounding the spindle b in the ordinary manner, and the said bushing is provided with ratchet-teeth, with which a pawl carried by the levers 0 may engage in the ordinary manner for the purpose of adjusting the tensionof the spring.

. In my Patent No. 655,107, issued July 31, 1900, I have shown a door-check similar in general construction to that herein shown, except that it is not-provided with the automatically adjusted regulatingvalve above described and except that the piston is operated by an eccentric upon a shaft located and driven similarly to shaft 2', instead of by a crank-shaft having crank-arms and a crankpin, as herein illustrated and described. The construction herein shown is an improvement upon that containing the eccentric, in that with the same dimensions of easing it permits greater travel of the piston, and therefore makes the check more powerful, or if the crank have no greater throw than the eccentric a shorter and more compact casing may be used.

Having thus completely described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a door-check, the combination, with a cylinder, and a piston, one of which members is provided with a relief-passage extending from the pressure side of the piston to the opposite side thereof, and operating mechanism adapted to be connected to a door and to the piston; of a spring suitably supported, located upon the pressure side of the out-let to said relief-passage, covering the said passage and forming a movable valve for regulating the flow of fluid therethrough, and arranged to be adjusted automatically by variations of fluid-pressure in the cylinder.

2. In a door-check, the combination with a cylinder, a piston havinga relief-opening and operating mechanism adapted to be connected to a door and to the piston; of a spring on the pressure side of the piston covering the relief-opening and forming a movable valve for regulating the passage of fluid therethrough, and arranged to be adjusted automatically by variations of fluid-pressure in the cylinder.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK H. OGDEN.

Witnesses:

A. H. PERLES, E. H. TUCKER. 

